International comparison of the Life Science industry climate in Sweden. A SwedenBIO report

During 2010 SwedenBIO decided to conduct an analysis and benchmarking project of the Life Science industry in Sweden entitled “International comparison of the Life Science industry climate in Sweden”. The objective is to investigate on a yearly basis the Life Science industry conditions in Sweden to generate a baseline to be able to monitor the development of the industry and the progress of SwedenBIO’s work. A prerequisite for a member-driven non-profit industry association like SwedenBIO is to have appropriate benchmarking tools in combination with a baseline of the industry and its performance in an international perspective to be able to work in a stringent way. The outcome of this analysis and project will enable SwedenBIO to work towards the development of an improved and fully functional environment for the Life Science industry sector. In addition, the analysis and its results will form a fundamental basis for lobbying and public affairs.

The analysis is based on a synthesis of three comprehensive index reports “Worldview Scorecard 2010”, “Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010” and “Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011”. The reason for choosing these three reports is that they cover in different aspects the three areas of biotechnology innovation, relative innovation power in Europe and the relative competitiveness of most countries in the world, respectively.

The conducted analysis clearly shows that Sweden has a strong innovation power and is an innovation-driven economy with conditions suitable for knowledge-intensive industry sectors such as the Life Science industry. Nevertheless, there are a number of indicators and structural changes that need to be taken into consideration, otherwise Sweden will have a declining Life Science industry for its SMEs. Below SwedenBIO has listed the most urgent areas of improvement for Sweden.

Leading indicators for Sweden to achieve continuous and innovative growth 

• Improvement of citation index for scientific publications.

• More venture capital needed.

• Innovative SMEs need to collaborate to a larger extent.

• SMEs need to be better at taking products to the market and get revenue.

• Innovative companies must increase their market size in an international perspective.

• Stop the “brain drain” and have a policy for “brain gain” within the Life Science sector.
  
  

Structural changes for Sweden

• Political cooperation and ability to prioritize, including tax rates.

• Better education system, especially in mathematics and science.

To conclude, Sweden has a good input (innovations), but needs improved output from its innovative climate (growing and prosperous companies) to be able to achieve continuous growth and development of the Life Science industry. A good innovation climate in Sweden should result in a high growth of innovative companies and not a paradox-like situation with high input and low output. SwedenBIO will together with our almost 190 member companies focus on the above mentioned necessary changes to be able to shift the bias to fulfill our vision of facilitating the development of a world class environment for the Life Science industry in Sweden.

The report is attached to this message.

For more information about the report, please contact:

Johan Järte, CEO SwedenBIO
johan.järte@swedenbio.com
+46 (0)8 21 36 01, +46 (0)70 652 4532

Olof Nord, Senior Manager SwedenBIO
olof.nord@swedenbio.com
+46 (0)8 21 36 02, +46 (0)73 330 5010

Maria Kaaman, Senior Manager SwedenBIO
maria.kaaman@swedenbio.com
+46(0) 21 31 32, +46(0)73 048 9034